Case Study: Smart stores reinvent the retail space - Part I

Although there has been an upsurge in online shopping, retail stores are not going away. Some traditional retailers are fighting back by using information
technology to provide new ways to bring people into physical stores or enhance their in-store experiences, even with new requirements for social distancing.

Acrelec, a French digital signage company, is piloting technology to help retailers manage store curbside pickups by customers placing orders online. Customers
can use a retailer's smartphone app to indicate they are coming to pick up an order, and the Acrelec system will estimate when a customer will arrive at a
particular store. Object-recognition cameras identify exactly when a customer's car arrives and where it is parked. Acrelec is especially useful for big-box retailers,
grocery stores, and home-improvement stores.

Shelves have become more than just a surface for storing and displaying objects. New systems for "smart" shelves use proximity sensors, 3D cameras,
microphones, RFID readers, and weight sensors to enable interactions between shoppers in physical stores and the shelves they're standing in front of. These
systems can create a highly personalized shopping experience that fundamentally improves the way shoppers move inside physical stores.

Brands and retailers such as Pepsi, Walmart, and Albertsons are starting to use Smart Shelf by AWM to replicate the benefits of the online experience in physical
retail environments. Using super-wide-angle low-light HD cameras, retailers deploying Smart Shelf are able to view and track their products in real-time. The
solution improves operational efficiencies by highlighting specific shelves that need product stocking and allows for real time on-shelf marketing to consumers.
When retailers connect Smart Shelf to their mobile apps, they can help shoppers locate products themselves through their smartphones and tablets.

AWM Frictionless is a walk-in, walk-out solution enabling customers to shop as normal and check out by simply exiting the store. The system uses digital shelving
and object-recognition cameras to keep track of which customers leave with which items. When customers enter a store, they are required to have mobile device
and facial recognition scans, which allow the system to charge their digital accounts when they leave with purchases and receive a receipt via email or text
message.

Sources: www.smartshelf.com, accessed April 29, 2020; AWM SmartShelf Launches Southern. California's First Autonomous Micromarket in Santa Ana's Nineteen01 Community,“ Businesswire, March 24, 2020; Jared Council,
"Retailers Hope In-Store Tech Will Keep Shoppers in Stores," Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2020.
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 Case Study: Smart stores reinvent the retail space – Part II
In March 2020 AWM opened a low-contact cashierless micromarket called QuickEats at a luxury apartment community owned by Greenwood & McKenzie in
Santa Ana California. QuickEats utilizes AWM Frictionless and features grab and-go products such as sodas, water, juice drinks, sandwiches, cheese plates, fruit,
and household cleaning items.

AWM Smart Shelf is able to personalize shoppers' experiences when they are in stores based on the items they pick up, even if they don't purchase them. For
example, if a customer picks up a box of cookies and then puts it back, the re tailer can use the system to offer a discount on the shelf beneath that item the next
time the shopper encounters it in the store. Cofounder Kurtis Van Horn believes that Smart Shelf can provide the same level of customization and per sonalization
as found in online shopping to brick-and-mortar stores.

AWM also offers an anonymous consumer behavior tracking application that can direct customers to other parts of a store using digital signage, enabling up-to-
the-minute advertising and pricing. AWM solutions can be implemented in a wide range of store sizes and formats, from micromarkets, to convenience stores, to
larger-format retailers. Technology is redefining the role of the shelf in retail marketing.

Sources: www.smartshelf.com, accessed April 29, 2020; AWM SmartShelf Launches Southern. California's First Autonomous Micromarket in Santa Ana's Nineteen01 Community,“ Businesswire, March 24, 2020; Jared Council,
"Retailers Hope In-Store Tech Will Keep Shoppers in Stores," Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2020.

Questions: How do Arelec´s and AWM´s systems change retail operations? How do they improve the customer experience?

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